Flexible eye duct for tearing eyes



Fein. 6, 1962 H. BRUDNEY 3,019,551

FLEXIBLE EYE DUCT FOR TEARING EYES Filed Jan. 6, 1959 l l l5., Il l PZ,I) l' l.

INVENTOR. F'G. 5. l Hneev Bevo/veg United States Patent C 3,019,551FLEXIBLE EYE DUCT FR TEARING EYES Harry Brudney, New York, N.Y.,assignor to Dollac Corporation, Brooklyn, N.Y. Filed Jan. 6, 1959, Ser.No. 785,269 4 Claims. (Cl. 46-135) This invention relates to tearing orweeping doll eyes and more specifically to means for connecting sucheyes to water reservoirs.

In a companion application, filed by me on March 18, 1957, Serial No.646,678, entitled Tearing Eye, I show a doll eye casing of generallyhollow construction having a relatively rigid nipple secured thereto,over which nipple a exible tubing is to be placed for connecting thecasing 'to a water reservoir within the doll body. While -thisarrangement has lbeen found to be eminently satisfactory and practicalin commercial use, there is a drawback involved in factory assembly.Specifically, when the wig of a doll is fastened to the head, after theeyes have been emplaced, a sewing machine is used to stitch the wig tothe soft, flexible material of the head, which is usually vinyl plastic.In the use of such a machine there is a post which comes up through theopen neck of the doll to abut the inner surface of the head, and aneedle which reciprocates down through the Wig and the head materiallfor stitching the wig in place. It has been found, in many instances,that the nipples extending from the rear of the doll eye casings havebeen caught between the needle and the post, or the post has bent ormashed the nipples. Obviously, the relatively rigid nipples form anobstruction which at times results in damage thereto, with a consequentneed for replacement of the eyes.

The present invention pertains to an improvement over the rigid form ofnipple by providing a flexible and substantially non-destructible form,and has for an object the furnishing of a simple and exceedingly cheapmeans of attaching tubing to the rear of the casing of a doll eye by theuse of such a nipple.

It is another object of the invention to provide a nipple having aconstruction which may be readily manufactured by automatic machines andwhich may be readily applied to the doll eye casing, in a simple,effective, and substantially leakproof manner.

In carrying out my invention, I provide a nipple comprised of a tightlycoiled, closed coil spring of -fairly 'fine spring wire. The spring iswound so that an end coil is of larger diameter than the remainder ofthe nipple and such end coil acts as a catch or flange, disposed on theinside of the eye casing to retain the ilexible, spring-wound nipple.Further retention of the nipple is effected by means of tongues struckfrom the rear wall of the casing and extending outwardly therefrom, orsolid eyelet extruded from the casing extending outwardly. Such srtikingof the tongues itself affords a port through which the spring isinitially placed so as to extend outwardly of the casing, while at thesame time acts as a peripheral gripping means and reinforcing means, fora small fraction of an inch, to the spring-wound nipple itself. Thus, bypressing the tongue in radially against the nipple, the tongues tend toform a very short, cylindrical, rigid, reinforcing tube about thenipple. This tube securely grips a certain number of coils of the nippleand permanently holds it in place.

In the manufacture of the spring-wound nipples, I prefer to dip them inmolten paraffin or other sealing material after winding. Thus, a coatingis formed which further prevents leakage which might otherwise occurthrough the coils. However, I have found that, as a matter of actualpractice, the coating may be dispensed with without any harmful leakingeffect.

3,019,551 Patented Feb.. 6, 1962 ICC In any event, by pushing exibletubing, such as rubber or plastic tubing, over the spring-wound nippleand also over the tongues clinched thereon, up to the casing wallitself, which tubing extends to the water reservoir, all vestige ofleaking is removed, and any such leakage as might possibly occur `wouldbe of no consequence whatsoever.

A detailed description of my invention will now be given in conjunctionwith the appended drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view partially in section, showing a tearing doll eyecasing with a spring-wound nipple secured thereto.

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation of the casing shown in full, showing thespring-wound nipple with tubing attached.

FIG. 3 is an elevation partially in section, showing details ofthe modeof attachment of the tubing; and

FIG. 4 is a section through 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 illustrates a modiiied form of the spring duct.

Referring now to the drawing, a doll eye 10 is disclosed having the rearcasing 14 having an end wall 16, to which is secured a flexible duct 18which is comprised of a tightly wound, closed coil spring having anenlarged end coil 22. The spring may be wound of wire gauge of the orderof .035-.015. However, the guage of wire is not critical.

A port 25 is provided in the end wall of the casing by stamping out aseries of four tongues such as 27. Each tongue substantially encompassesthe port for an arcuate distance of ninety degrees. rllhe spring-wound,flexible duct may be pushed through the port, before assembly of theeye, until the enlarged coil 22 abuts the inner surface of the endcasing wall 16. Thereafter, the tongues 27 may Ibe clinched by forcingthem toward the spring axis in a suitable die so that, lfor all intentsand purposes, a complete cylinder is made, as best seen on FIG. 2, whichsecurely grips the first lfew coils of the spring-wound duct andpermanently locks it in place.

With the mode of assembly described hereinabove, a complete unit is thenformed after the remaining eye components, of a conventional nature, areassembled to the casing 14. Finally, the eye units may be mounted withinsuitable resilient cavities of a vinyl doll head with the ducts 1Sextending rearwardly therein and plastic or rub ber tubing 30 pushedover the duct 18 and also over the clinched tongues 27 up to the wall16. A secure and leakproof, though iiexible, connection is thus made. Itwill, of course, be understood that the extent of the tongues 27 isexceedingly short, of the order of a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch,so that this rigid portion of the composite ducting will not defeat theelfect of flexibility provided vby the spring-wound duct 18. It would,of course, be possible to strike the tongues 27 so that they projectrearwardly into the casing, thereby leaving only flexible, spring-woundcoils emerging from the casing, but as a matter of practice, this is notdeemed necessary, since the interfering elements of the sewing machinein stitching a wig to a vinyl head, are not considered to approach thecasing so closely as to strike the tongues 27.

From the foregoing description, the invention and mode of assembly willbe seen to ybe exceedingly simple and economical to manufacture. Ashereinabove stated, the spring-wound ducts may or may not be coated withany suitable compound to absolutely prevent leakage, it being found thatleakage of an uncoated spring is either nonexistent or so negligible asto hardly warrant the extra costing step in manufacture. However, thecoating step could be included where one hundred percent dryness isnecessitated by the nature of the doll.

As shown in FIG. 5, a modified form of spring tapered toward its outerend may be used. The advantage of the taper is to expedite Aforcing thetube 30 onto the spring. It Iwill be noted that the taper commences atapproximately the mid portion of the spring so that a large part of thetube is forced onto the full diameter coils in order to provide aneffective and secure grip.

Having thus described my invention, I am aware that changes may ybe madewithout departing from the spirit thereof, and, accordingly, I do notseek to be limited to the precise illustration vherein `given except asset forth in the :appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a tearing eye for a doll head, a rear casing, a port through saidcasing, a exible nipple xedly secured at one end thereof to said casingand leading to said port, said nipple being comprised of a helicalclosed coil spring and adapted at its other end to receive a ilexibletube attached thereto.

2. In a device as set forth in claim 1, said helical spring passingthrough said port and 4having an enlarged end coil of greater diameterthan the diameter of said port disposed on the inside of the casing andin abutment there with.

3. In a device as set forth in claim 1, said helical spring passingthrough said port, tongues struck from the material of said casing andvperipherally bounding said port and surrounding a portion of saidspring, said tongues being clinched radially inwardly to grip saidspring.

4. In a tearing eye for a doll head, a rear casing, a port through saidcasing, a exible nipple secured to said casing and leading to said port,saidy nipple being comprised of a helical closed coil spring, and beingprovided with a taper from its free end diverging toward the oppositeend, said taper being for a predetermined distance, whereby a flexibletube may be readily guided by said taper onto said spring and besecurely gripped for a substantial portion of the spring length by fulldiameter sized coils thereof.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,450,961 Otterbein Apr. 10, 1923 2,760,262 Homan Aug. 28, 19562,811,810 Ostrander Nov. 5, 1957 2,819,560 Cohn Jan. 14, 1958 2,857,665Cohen Oct. 28, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 223,397 Germany lune 21, 1910

